Arctic Launches Freezer 50: AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs Are Getting Threadripper-Style Cooler

Arctic Freezer 50
(Image credit: Arctic)

Arctic has unveiled a version of its legendary Freezer 50 cooler for mainstream AMD and Intel processors. This massive cooler weighs nearly 2.6 pounds (1.2  kilograms), has two fans, and promises to stay quiet even at reasonably high loads. The Freezer 50 launches just in time for AMD’s enthusiast-grade Ryzen 5000-series CPUs that will be available this November.  

The original Arctic Freezer 50 TR cooler was designed for AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper processors which can dissipate up to 280W at stock and a lot more when overclocked. Most owners of Threadripper systems use liquid coolers as they are concerned about properly cooling their power-hungry CPUs running at high clocks. This means that there are only a few air coolers for sTR4 processors on the market. Given the typical use cases of AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper, all of these air coolers are designed with overclocking in mind, so they can dissipate significantly more than 280 W. Applying this design to ‘mega coolers’ aimed at more mainstream CPUs will naturally give them a lot of headroom for overclocking. In fact, keeping in mind that AMD wants its Ryzen 5000-series CPUs with a TDP higher than 65 W to be cooled using a rather potent 280-mm all-in-one liquid cooling system or an ‘equivalent’ air cooling system, Arctic launches its Freezer 50 at the very right time.  

Indeed, the Arctic Freezer 50 promises to offer performance comparable to that of AIO liquid coolers. The unit comes with a gigantic dual-tower heatsink featuring 104 0.4-mm aluminum fins as well as six U-shaped 6-mm heat pipes that form a direct-touch base which covers the whole surface of a CPU’s IHS. 

(Image credit: Arctic)

The cooler uses two fluid dynamic bearing fans of different sizes — a 120-mm one and a 140-mm one — to maximize airflow and therefore increase performance. Arctic says that depending on the load, the 120-mm fan rotates at 200 ~ 1800 RPM, whereas the 140-mm fan rotates at 200 ~ 1700 RPM, so the cooler should be utterly quietly under light and even medium loads. Arctic claims that noise level produced by the cooler at max speeds should not exceed 0.4 Sone (23.5~25 dBA). 

(Image credit: Arctic)

Arctic’s Freezer 50 cooler is compatible with all modern mainstream platforms, including AMD’s AM4 as well as Intel’s LGA1200, LGA2066, LGA115x, and LGA2011-3 sockets. As far as dimensions are concerned, the Arctic’s Freezer 50 measures 5.8 x 5.9 x 6.5 inches (148×149.5×166 mm), just like its counterpart for Threadripper processors, so it will be compatible with the vast majority of spacious cases designed for enthusiasts. It also leaves a memory module clearance of 37.5 mm to maximize compatibility with high-end DRAM sticks.  

Since modern enthusiast-grade hardware should not only offer high performance, but also look flashy, the Freezer 50 comes with 13 A-RGB LEDs that can be controlled using software from leading makers of motherboards. 

The Arctic Freezer 50 is already available directly from the company in Europe for €59.99, including VAT. The cooler will probably hit major retailers in the coming weeks. 

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • jpe1701
    I hope this works well. I was looking at the cooler master cooler that they made for am4 that was like the wraith ripper but the cooling performance was terrible next to my aio.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    any chance of a comparison between it and say the nh-d15?
    Reply
  • rubix_1011
    If Arctic sends me a unit to test, I can compare. I only have an i9 and TR4 system, nothing Ryzen-specific, but it looks like this will support AMD and Intel sockets, so it can certainly be compared directly with a D15, which I will be re-testing on the new 10850k platform.
    Reply
  • nofanneeded
    rubix_1011 said:
    If Arctic sends me a unit to test, I can compare. I only have an i9 and TR4 system, nothing Ryzen-specific, but it looks like this will support AMD and Intel sockets, so it can certainly be compared directly with a D15, which I will be re-testing on the new 10850k platform.

    Please retest for both TR4 and i9 . we need to know how it performs on high TDP CPU as well
    Reply
  • rubix_1011
    The Threadripper version has already been tested on TR4. It can be found here: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/arctic-freezer-50tr
    Reply
  • nofanneeded
    rubix_1011 said:
    The Threadripper version has already been tested on TR4. It can be found here: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/arctic-freezer-50tr

    Yes but it is not compared against Noctua D15 flagship cooler , I need to know which one is better.

    The U14s compared is not two towers design like the D15 and the freezer 50
    Reply
  • werther595
    Am I wrong or did they make an RGB Scythe Fuma 2?
    Reply
  • rubix_1011
    nofanneeded said:
    Yes but it is not compared against Noctua D15 flagship cooler , I need to know which one is better.

    The U14s compared is not two towers design like the D15 and the freezer 50

    'Need' is a strong usage of the term, here.

    Also, these were all 'Threadripper-only' coolers compared - this isn't a cross-platform comparison of these coolers with others which have mounting flexibility for other sockets. TR4/TRX4 and peer coolers were covered specifically with the Freezer 50 TR4 model.
    Reply
  • Homer J.
    nofanneeded said:
    Yes but it is not compared against Noctua D15 flagship cooler , I need to know which one is better.

    The U14s compared is not two towers design like the D15 and the freezer 50

    I own a Noctua NH D-15 and it is a beast, since the Noctua D15 has better performance than the Dark Rock 4 and better performance than the U14, both of which beat the Arctic Freezer 50 you already got your answer. What speaks for the Freezer 50 is its price and that's it.
    Reply
  • kal326
    I’d be interested in seeing a comparison against this against a few other air coolers. I’m still looking into a smoothing other options to deal with the ridiculous fan ramp up on my 3700x stock cooler. If that doesn’t work a good overkill and quite fan will be it’s replacement. Especially if I step up to a higher TDP chip.
    Reply